News and analysis on politics, human rights and civil society in Latin America by Geoffrey Ramsey

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

El Salvador's Maras Accuse U.S. of 'Obstructing' Gang Truce

On Monday afternoon, the leaders of the most powerful Salvadoran
“maras,” or street gangs, released a statement
in which they sharply condemned the U.S. State Department’s recently-released travel warning
for El Salvador as an attempt to hinder the gangs’ historic ceasefire in
the country. The statement, which was given to local media at a press
conference held by leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 at La
Esperanza prison in San Salvador, criticized the data cited in the travel
warning as “outdated.”

In
its notice, the State Department acknowledged that while the truce between
MS-13 and Barrio 18 has dramatically reduced the number of homicides in the
country, crime and violence remain serious threats to security. It warned U.S.
citizens traveling there to “exercise caution” in order to reduce their risk of
falling prey to robbery or extortion. Salvador However, the warning only cited crime
statistics from 2010 and 2011, when violent crime levels in El Salvador had
reached an all-time high.

As the Center
for Democracy in the Americas’ Linda Garrett notes, the timing of the announcement
is extremely odd. Although it cited data from 2010 and 2011, the State
Department did not issue a single travel warning during those years. The
decision to release the warning now, when the homicide rate is at its lowest
since 2003, seems suspiciously like an attempt to cast doubt on the efficacy of
the gang truce, which is credited with reducing
murders by two-thirds since it was first negotiated in March 2012.

The gang leaders pointed this out as well. In surprisingly
flowery language, the MS-13 and Barrio 18 said that they respect the United
States’ “indifferent attitude” towards the truce. But they also stressed that
if the U.S. was not going to facilitate the truce (which has progressed to a second
stage involving the creation
of “peace zones” throughout the country), it should at least not attempt to
“obstruct” it.

This is not the first U.S. action which could be seen
as an attempt to discredit the gang truce. In October, the U.S. Treasury added
the MS-13 to its list of dangerous transnational criminal
organizations, ranking it with Mexico’s Zetas cartel and the Russian mafia
despite the objections
of Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes.

Whether or not the gangs’ objection to the travel
warning is justified, such polished press statements point to a larger issue in
El Salvador: the question of whether the government’s recognition of the truce has
afforded the gangs a dangerously high profile. As the International Assessment
and Strategy Center’s Doug Farah has
argued, this could allow them to use new-found political clout as a means of
increasing their overall criminal influence in the country.

News Briefs

Brazilian investigators have determined that the
nightclub fire which killed more than 230 over the weekend was causedby the kinds of flares used by the band for
its onstage pyrotechnics display, which were for outdoor use only. The AP
reports that the use of these flares was an attempt by the band to save
money. Other media outlets and Brazil analysts have focused on the impact that
Brazilian culture may have played on both the fire and its aftermath. The
New York Times, for instance, reports that Brazil is confronting a “fatalistic”
society, and cites an O
Globo editorial which asserts that the fire and loss of in general in the
country could be partially explained by “administrative ineptitude, corruption,
omission of public authorities and conformity of the common citizen.”
Meanwhile, Reuters says that the fire has caused
many Brazilians to worry that their “culture
of haphazard regulation and lax accountability” could impede the country’s development.

Colombia's Justice Minister Ruth
Stella Correa announced yesterday that the Colombian government will present a
bill to congress which would legalize the possession of small amounts of synthetic
drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy. According to El
Pais and El
Tiempo, the new law would allow Colombians to possess 200 milligrams or
"three pills" of these substances.

The Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) have acknowledged that they have captured two
Colombian policemen in the southwest province of Valle del Cauca, El
Tiempo reports. In a statement, the FARC said it considers the two to be prisoners
of war, and said it has offered to organize a prisoner swap with the government.

Colombian human rights
monitoring group Nuevo
Arco Iris has an interesting piece on the accommodations of the FARC negotiating
team in Havana, Cuba, where the guerrilla leaders are staying in mansions
formerly belonging to sugar plantation owners.

In the wake of the disastrous fire in Brazil, Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega ordered the National Police to ban indoor pyrotechnic
displays in the Central American country on Tuesday, according to El
Nuevo Diario.

After the discovery of
several bodies of kidnapped musicians in a well in northern Mexico earlier this
week, officials say that all of the victims’ bodies have now been located
in the well. Mexican police say they are still looking into the motives behind
the murder of the group, which is popular in the northern state of Nuevo Leon.

Writing for the Global
Post, Girish Gupta takes a look at optimism among Chavistas in Venezuela in
response to news that Hugo Chavez’s health is improving. As he notes, many in
the pro-Chavez camp are hopeful that the Venezuelan president will make a
return to the country on February 4th, the 21st anniversary of his failed coup
against President Carlos Andres Perez. Some among the opposition suspect this
as well, and believe that this is why opposition leader Henrique Capriles has
been surprisingly
muted in his criticism of the vice president ruling in Chavez’s absence.

Although the upcoming
presidential elections in Honduras are still ten months away, La
Prensa has released the results of an opinion poll on the presumed
candidates’ favorability. The poll shows the left-wing Xiomara Castro, wife of
deposed president Manuel Zelaya, virtually tied with current congressional
president Juan Hernandez, at 25 percent and 22 percent.

The Israeli government on
Tuesday conveyed “astonishment and disappointment” in response to the announcement
that Argentina would work with Iran to establish an independent commission
charged with investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in
Buenos Aires, the New
York Times reports.

La
Nacion reports that Argentina is overjoyed at the news that the Netherlands’
Queen Beatrix will be abdicating the throne in favor of her son Prince
Willem-Alexander, because it means that his wife Maxima, an Argentine, will become
the “world’s first Argentine queen.”

About The Author

Geoff Ramsey works as a communications officer for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Before joining WOLA, Ramsey worked as a researcher for the Open Society Foundation’s Latin America Program. His most recent work involved monitoring civil society advocacy for and implementation of 2013 drug policy reforms in Uruguay, where he lived for nearly two years. Prior to that he spent two years living in Colombia and Brazil, where he researched and reported on regional insecurity issues for InSight Crime. Any views or opinions expressed in these posts are the sole responsibility of the author. Email: gramsey (at) thepanamericanpost (dot) com